Effect of ventilation on fire growth in diesel fueled compartment fire

ABSTRACT

This paper quantifies experimentally the effect of ventilation in diesel pool fire (d = 0.6 m) in a cubical compartment of 64 m³ with ventilation opening factor in range of 0.088–2.828 $m^{5/2}$. The work is addressed to fire safety in nuclear power plant in which ventilated enclosure are frequently used for chemical processing of flammable fuels. In present work, fuel mass loss rate, global CO concentration, global CO/CO₂ yield, flame temperature, global equivalence ratio, doorway temperature with velocity profile, and heat flux are measured to predict the effect of ventilation in compartment fire. Ventilation with test 3 is noted as critical opening i.e. after that mass loss rate suddenly decreased. It is also observed that compartment fire is affected more by varying door height rather than varying door width. Unpredictably, global CO emission are obtained nearly the same regardless of doorway opening. Combustion efficiency is found to be in range of 0.39–0.93. Results showed that reduction in ventilation results in oscillating flame behavior and increase in upper layer gas temperature. Present data correlated well under thermal scaling analysis. The results shown in present work can be used as an input to fire hazard analysis in nuclear power plants.

KEYWORDS:

• Compartment fire
• opening factor
• mass burning rate
• global equivalence ratio
• thermal radiation

Acknowledgments

The present work is supported by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai under the Grant No.: DAE-507-MID.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre [DAE-507-MID].